Trash pick-up there’s an app for that for City of Columbus residents now!

Resident’s of southern Delaware County, Ohio neighborhoods in the City of Columbus can now sign up for an app to let them know when their next scheduled trash pick-up is. TrashGo is an app for Columbus residents. It’s an email reminder service. TrashGo is free and easy to sign up.

Columbus color coded trash collection

There are City of Columbus residential neighborhoods in the Polaris area. I believe the southern Delaware County, City of Columbus neighborhoods are in NAVY. There are five colors in the Columbus ‘Rotating Color Calendar.’

While most communities have a standard day during the week when refuse is collected, Columbus has for years had a revolving, color coded trash pick-up schedule. Columbus trash pick-up day moves back after each observed holiday during the year. Observed holidays can make trash day confusing in Columbus, the trash pick-up day moves after New Years, Martin Luther King Jr. Day, Presidents Day, Memorial Day, 4th of July, Labor Day, Columbus Day, Thanksgiving and Christmas. There has been color coded trash pick-up in Columbus* for decades. The revolving calendar is not rocket science but having a revolving trash pick-up day can sometimes cause some confusion.

A Friendly Reminder

There is an app now to tell you when your Columbus trash pick-up day is. Go to TrashGo

( http://trash.cityofcolumb.us/about ) A Columbus Trash Reminder app.

TrashGo: FREE and Easy

Just go to the TrashGo site, put in your email address.

Provide your current trash day (do you remember?)

Confirm the registration. I received an email that said:

“Hello there!

Thank you for registering. You’re almost done! Before we can send you reminders, one last step must be taken to complete your registration.

Please note – you must complete this last step to receive email reminders. You will only need to visit this URL once to verify your account.

TrashGo is a reminder about the day your green trash bin gets rolled out to the street to meet the big yellow truck with the mechanical arm. A reminder about recyclable pick-up may be added to the beta web app later.

TrashGo is NOT part of the City of Columbus. You will still need to use the City of Columbus website to answer questions about bulk pick-up, recycling, what is not allowed, etc.

No more forgetting there was a holiday since your last trash day and putting your green trash bin out a day early. No more watching to see when the neighbors put their trash out. No more hearing the roar of the garbage trucks and running through the ice and snow barefoot to put your trash on the driveway across the street. Yes I have done that more than once.

TrashGo is on Twitter

TrashGo tweets. The TrashGo reminder is an email though. The image at the top is of TrashGo tweeting about the email reminders.

* A 2006 post about the color coded trash pick-up schedule on ColumbusBestBlog.com This post bears a striking resemblance to another post on ColumbusBestBlog.com, both are me talking trash.

Buckeye Valley Local High School is ranked the number 100 high school on the Ohio list. The report gives the ‘National Rank’ for those schools they ranked. “Buckeye Valley Local High School is ranked 100th within Ohio.”

The methodology for the ratings and rankings of the report produced by US News is available online. ‘American Institutes for Research’ or AIR worked with US News to come up with the school ratings and rankings. AIR is a behavioral and social science research organization. US News explains their methodology in “How U.S. News Calculated the 2013 Best High Schools Rankings.” US News used a three-step process to determine the Best High Schools ratings and rankings. Serving all students well, not just superior education for those students headed for college is part of the rating of schools across the US are rated.

Ohio School Report Cards

Delaware County, Ohio Schools Grades “Report cards” from the state for each school district and each individual school are available from the Ohio Department of Education. The recent report cards issued in late 2012 were for the 2011 – 2012 school year. Report cards came out later than usual in 2012. Buckeye Valley Local Schools received a grade of Excellent with Distinction (top grade) last fall. Each Buckeye Valley School is graded by state as well.

All three high schools in the Olentangy Local School District are at the top of a ranking released Wednesday, April 24, 2013 of the best schools. US News ranked and rated schools across the US. Olentangy Liberty High School is the best high school in central Ohio according to the report by US News & World Reports. Bexley High School in Franklin County is ranked next, followed by Olentangy High School and Olentangy Orange High School.

No Ohio high schools are on the top ten schools in the nation according to the 2013 report. :- (

Top Ten High Schools in Central Ohio according to US News:

Olentangy Liberty High School (4)

Bexley High School (5)

Olentangy High School (7)

Orange High School (11)

Dublin Coffman High School (12)

Dublin Jerome High School (15)

New Albany High School (18)

Upper Arlington High School (25)

Dublin Scioto High School (26)

Hilliard Darby High School (31)

The order 1 through 10 is the order the US News article ranked the schools among Ohio schools. The number in the parenthesis is the rank in the state of Ohio. Three Ohio high schools in the Cinci area are ranked better by USNews.com than Olentangy Liberty High School. The US News report also gives a rank nationally for the schools.

The US News education report ranks the top 125 high schools in Ohio. There are ratings for more than the best 125 high schools in Ohio. You can search for a school by name or go through all Ohio high schools (or every other state) online.

The Olentangy Local School District site has attendance areas for the three high schools online (link to the site below) Middle school and elementary school attendance information is available as well. Attendance areas within a school district change. Changes in population may require the school district “redistrict.” Currently there are maps and a neighborhood chart for the attendance areas in the Olentangy Local School District now. The Olentangy Local School District site now says “Last updated: November 29, 2012″ of the attendance areas.

The methodology for the ratings and rankings of the report from US News is available online. An organization named ‘American Institutes for Research’ or AIR worked with US News to come up with the school ratings and rankings. AIR is a behavioral and social science research organization. US News explains the methodology in “How U.S. News Calculated the 2013 Best High Schools Rankings.” They used a three-step process to determine the Best High Schools ratings and rankings. Serving all students well, not just those headed for college is part of the way schools across the country are rated.

Ohio School Report Cards

Delaware County Schools Grades Ohio “Report cards” from the state for each school district and each individual school are available from the Ohio Department of Education. The recent report cards issued in late 2012 were for the 2011 – 2012 school year. Report cards came out later than usual in 2012. Olentangy Local Schools received a grade of Excellent with Distinction (top grade) last fall.

Olentangy High School and “Orange High School” are in the top ten Central Ohio School Districts on the US News report too. Is the third high school in the Olentangy Local School District just called Orange High School? That is how the US News report refers to the Delaware County school district. Google and the school’s website say “Olentangy Orange High School” there is another Orange High School in Ohio too.

Delaware County, Ohio High Schools

There are only six high schools in Delaware County, Ohio. The three high schools in the Olentangy Local School District, Big Walnut High School, Buckeye Valley School District and Rutherford B. Hayes High School in the Delaware City School District.

Buckeye Valley Local High School is number 100 on the Ohio list. The report gives the ‘National Rank’ for those schools they ranked. “Buckeye Valley Local High School is ranked 100th within Ohio.” The report gives the Delaware County, Ohio school a National Rank of 1753.

Big Walnut High School is not in the top 125 high schools in Ohio? Oh where, Oh where is Big Walnut High School?*

Rutherford B Hayes High School in Delaware…

*You can search for a high school on the report, link above. There is an alphabetical list too.

Those schools which are not ranked (within the state and nationally) do appear on the report with ratings for:

College Readiness Index

Math Proficiency

Reading Proficiency

Student/Teacher Ratio

The ranked schools have ratings as well.

Neighborhoods in Delaware County, Ohio Schools

The TOP 10 Central Ohio High Schools on ColumbusBestBlog.com includes other central Ohio schools that include Delaware County, Ohio neighborhoods, Dublin high schools, Westerville North High School. While the school districts for a home are set in stone (perhaps that is just a figure of speach…) the attendance areas within the Ohio school district are rearranged occasionally. Redistricting based on population changes within a school district are not uncommon.

Top Ten High Schools in Central Ohio

Olentangy Liberty High School (4)

Bexley High School (5)

Olentangy High School (7)

Orange High School (11)

Dublin Coffman High School (12)

Dublin Jerome High School (15)

New Albany High School (18)

Upper Arlington High School (25)

Dublin Scioto High School (26)

Hilliard Darby High School (31)

The ranking is from the US News report. The number in parenthesis is the rank within the state of Ohio. Bexley, New Albany, Upper Arlington and Hilliard are Franklin County, Ohio communities.

US News Reports Methodology

The methodology US News used for the Best High Schools did not change from their 2012 report. US News worked with an organization called ‘American Institutes for Research’ or AIR to come up with their ratings/ rankings of schools across the country, AIR is a behavioral and social science research organization. Visit the US News article to read exactly the methodology behind the ratings / rankings: “How U.S. News Calculated the 2013 Best High Schools Rankings.” They used a three-step process to determine the “Best High Schools” ratings / rankings. Serving all students well is part of the way schools across the country are rated.

Columbus Business First has a slide show that shows the top 15 local high schools according to the US News report, Olentangy Liberty to Westerville North (in the top 15 high schools in central Ohio according to the US News report.

The full report in US News has a “Why High Schools Moved Up and Down in the Rankings” and lots more to read. You can search for a high school by name, you can click on Ohio and see the rankings / ratings for high schools across the state.

There were 25 homes sold in the Lewis Center, Ohio 43035 area in March 2013. That is only one more home sold than a year ago. The number of homes for sale in the Lewis Center area is down drastically since March 2012. The light green bars in the graph show the number of Lewis Center homes for sale by month. The dark green bars show the number of Lewis Center, Ohio homes sold each month.

The graph / market summary are for single family resale homes with a Lewis Center, Ohio 43035 address in the Columbus Board of REALTORS mls.

There were 25 home sales (closed sales) in Lewis Center in March 2013. Only one more sale than March 2012. There are 50 homes for sale in Lewis Center (or were) compared to 111 in March 2012, that’s a big difference.

The number of homes sold in Lewis Center was up only 4.2% in March 2013. The number of homes for sale is down 55% from a year ago. There are only 2 months of inventory on the market in the area, that’s a sellers market.

Lewis Center, Ohio 43035 home prices

The average sold price of a home in Lewis Center in March 2013 was up 15.6% from a year ago at $260,000. The average for sale price of a Lewis Center, Ohio 43035 home at $312,000 is up as well. The average for sale price of a Lewis Center home is up only 11% from a year ago.

The median sale price of a Lewis Center, Ohio 43035 home in March was up 10.4%. The March 2013 median sale price of a home in the area was $240,000.

The homes that closed in March 2013 in Lewis Center, sold within 98% of their final list price. An average of 2% discount from list price. Oddly homes sold (closed) in March 2013 also sold within 98% of their original list price.

Lewis Center, Ohio 43035 real estate searches are for single family listings in the Columbus Board of REALTORS mls (multiple listing service) on my HER Realtors site. Change the searches to match the home you are looking for.

There were 84 homes sold in Olentangy schools in March 2013. A year earlier there were 62 homes sold in the area. The number of homes for sale is down in Olentangy schools. This graph shows home sales in the Olentangy Local School District for the past 15 months through March 2013. The light green bars are the number of homes for sale. The dark green bars are the number of homes sold by month. The graph and market report are for single family resale homes listed in the Columbus Board of REALTORS mls (multiple listing service.) This does not include new homes, condominium homes or multi-family residences.

The number of homes sold in the Olentangy Local School District was up 35.5% in March 2013. The number of homes for sale in the school district in March 2013 was down 40.4% from a year ago. Based on increased March sales there is just less than 3 months of inventory (homes for sale) on the market…. suddenly it’s a sellers market in the school district.

Home prices in Olentangy schools

Are home prices in the Olentangy school district rising as a result of increased solds and less homes on the market? Yes and no. The average sold price of a home in the school district was up 2.5% from March 2012 at $326,000. The average for sale price of a home in Olentangy schools increased 35% from last year. The average “for sale” price of a home in the school district is $551,000. Anticipation?

The median sale of a single family resale home in Olentangy schools in April 2013 was up 15.2% from a year ago at $295,000.

Homes in the area sold within 97% of their final list price in March 2013 (approximately 3% average discount from list price.) The homes that closed in March 2013 in Olentangy schools sold within 95% of their original list price. A year ago homes in the area sold within 95% of their final list price and 90% of their original list price. Home prices are going up in Olentangy schools, not shooting up as fast as some sellers would like based on the average list price shooting up to $551,000.

Two of the largest areas in the Olentangy Local School District are Powell and Lewis Center. There are other zip codes in the school district as well. * These searches show both new and resale properties in the Columbus Board of REALTORS mls (multiple listing service.) You are able to change searches to condos, land, another price range, another zip code or community or whatever home you are searching for.

The graph shows homes for sale for the past 15 months in the light green bars. The dark green bars show Delaware County, Ohio home sales for the past 15 months.There were 169 homes sold in March 2013. A year ago there were 134 homes sold in the county. There were 628 homes for sale at the end of March 2013. In March 2012 there were 910 homes for sale.

The graph is for single family resale homes in the Columbus Board of REALTORS mls (multiple listing service.) The graph does not include new homes, condominium homes or multi-family residences.

Delaware County, Ohio real estate March 2013

March 2013 Delaware County, Ohio home sales were up 26% from a year ago. The number of homes for sale in the county is down 31% from March 2012. With increased sales and less homes on the market, the number of months of inventory (homes for sale) is down to 4 months. A year ago there was 7 months of inventory in Delaware County, Ohio.

Polaris where the deer and the antelope play. I had seen photos online from the grand opening so I knew of the taxidermy…. but was not really prepared for all the stuffed animals. I am NOT a hunter but taxidermy does not bother me… Or taxidermy is less noticeable in a huge outdoor store with hunting and camping equipment than it is in residential situations. There was a house in the 2012 BIA Parade of Homes at the Meadows at Lewis Center with decorating featuring a lot of “taxidermy.” The theme was more antlers and less stuffed animals but it was still memorable.

If you go to Cabela’s in Columbus, it is at Polaris in southern Delaware County, just west of Polaris Fashion Place:

On Foursquare one of the tips about Cabela’s is “park at Costco.” Another Foursquare tip is that if you park at Costco to visit Cabela’s Columbus your car could be towed.

Cabela’s has a parking lot. Both entrances to the parking lot at Costco and the strip mall right up on Gemini have big, new signs saying something like “no Cabela’s parking.”

We stopped in to see Cabela’s on a Thursday night 20 minutes before closing and there was plenty of places to park. I wondered if the unwelcoming signs on surrrounding businesses were left over from the grand opening. Or does Cabela’s still get crowded on weekends? I am sure the store and it’s merchandise lends itself to weekend events.

We spent most of our 20 minutes looking at shoes… well once we took a few photos of the stuffed animals at Cabela’s.

The graph shows home prices in City of Columbus neighborhoods in Delaware County, Ohio for the past 15 months through February 2013. The green line is the average price of homes for sale, the red line is the average price of homes sold in the area. The average sold price of a home in the area in southern Delaware County, Ohio was $192,000 in February 2013.

City of Columbus neighborhoods homes prices

The average sold price of a home in the area was $192,000 in February 2013. That’s up 10.3% from the February 2012 average sold price. The average “for sale” price of a home in the City of Columbus in Delaware County was down 5.4% from a year ago.
The February 2013 median sale price of a home in the area was $193,000 up 8.4% from a year ago. In February 2012 the median price of a home sold in the area was $178,000.

In February 2013 the average home sold price was 97% of the average final for sale price. Homes sold with an average 3% discount from the final for sale price of a home. That is not unlike most areas in Delaware County, Ohio. The unique thing is that homes also sold within 97% of their original for sale price in February 2013.

City of Columbus neighborhoods real estate markets: February 2013

Home sales in the area were down 33.3% from February 2012. It is a small area. The number of homes for sale in the area was down 25% from February 2012. There are 5 months of inventory available based on February 2013 home sales in the City of Columbus neighborhoods, that’s a balanced market, neither a buyer’s market or a seller’s market.

City of Columbus neighborhoods home search

Some of the homes in the City of Columbus neighborhoods have a Columbus address, the 43240 zip code in the Polaris area. A larger number of the homes have a Lewis Center, Ohio 43035 address.

The searches are for single family homes only. In the Columbus, Ohio 43240 zip code there are usually many more condominiums on the market than single family residences. You can change the searches on my HER Realtors site to match what you are looking for.

The Lewis Center, Ohio 43035 searches are for all homes with the zip code whether they are in an unincorporated area or in the City of Columbus. The searches are for single family residences only. The Lewis Center, Ohio 43035 home searches are virtually all resale and new listings entered in the Columbus Board of REALTORS mls (multiple listing service.) Change a search to match the home you are looking for.

The graph shows home prices in the Westerville, Ohio 43082 zip code for the past 15 months. The green line in the graph is the average price of homes “for sale.” The red line is the average sold price for the past 15 months through February 2013.
The graph is for single family resale listings in the Columbus Board of REALTORS mls (multiple listing service) no new homes, no condominiums are included. The February 2013 average sale price was $266,000. The average for sale price in the graph, the green line is striking. The $446,000 average “for sale” price is a jump!

Westerville, Ohio 43082 home prices February 2013

The February 2013 average sale price in the area was $266,000 identical to the February 2012 average sale price. The average “for sale” price of a Westerville home in Delaware County jumped 22.9% from a year earlier.

The area median sale price in February 2013 was, down -6% from February 2012. For the months of December, January and February combined the median sale price in the Westerville zip code is down 5.2% from median prices a year earlier.

Westerville, Ohio 43082 real estate February 2013

The homes for sale links* in this post are on my HER Realtors site. The searches are for virtually all single family listings in the Columbus Board of REALTORS mls.